My Jewish Journey: Lewis Wiener

Everyone is wearing white. Boys and girls, teens and adults, all in white, walking, singing, meeting at Crossroads. Camp Eisner, late 1970s. Song leaders leading the procession, leading us to Shabbat. My Jewish journey from religious school, Friday night services with my family, bar mitzvah, confirmation, youth group, NFTY, all led to Crossroads at Camp Eisner and has paved my Jewish path since.

My Jewish identity is cultural. I relish the Passover seder knowing that my family is another link in a thousands year old chain keeping our Jewish traditions alive and adding to our people’s rich mosaic. Alisa and I were married at Washington Hebrew, each of our children, just weeks old, blessed on the bimah, the same bimah on which they would stand as a bar or bat mitzvah. We have shared grief and joy, the full circle of life with our temple family. We celebrate Shabbat at home and in the Crossroads of my mind.

---